Carriage of Benito Juárez
Mid nineteenth century
A plain black carriage with modest fittings hardly sounds like a museum highlight, but this one carried the government of Mexico. When French troops occupied the capital in 1863, President Benito Juárez refused to surrender and took the republic on the road, travelling north through San Luis Potosí, Saltillo, Monterrey, Chihuahua and finally the border town now named Ciudad Juárez in his honour. Carriages like this one, with a heavy body and enclosed cabin, became the moving seat of the state, carrying the president, his ministers and the national archive.
Compare it with the gilded imperial coach nearby. Juárez, a Zapotec from Oaxaca who had risen through law and politics to the presidency, cultivated an image of republican austerity, always in a black frock coat, and the sober vehicle fits that image exactly. Look at the practical details: the sturdy wheels and springs built for rough roads, the leather hood, the simple lamps. This was a vehicle for distances, not parades.
The carriage is treated in Mexico as a relic of the Reform period, the years when Juárez separated church and state and defended the constitution of 1857 against conservatives and foreign intervention. After the fall of Maximilian in 1867 he returned to the capital in triumph and governed until his death in 1872. His most famous phrase, that respect for the rights of others is peace, is carved on monuments across the country. Standing between the two carriages you are looking at the two Mexicos that fought for the nation's future in the 1860s.
Did You Know? During the years of the French Intervention the entire presidential government, including the archives, travelled in a small convoy of carriages and wagons across northern Mexico.
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